The phrase "serve as a backdrop" is grammatically correct and can be used in written English.
It is typically used to describe a setting or background that provides context or perspective for something else. Here is an example: The majestic mountains served as a beautiful backdrop for the small village nestled in the valley below.
Views of neighboring Saba and St. Eustatius, rising like volcanoes in the sea, serve as backdrop.
Images of the performers cavorting in the wetlands serve as backdrop to a dance set to the Cuban music of Tiempo Libre and the indie folk of Andrew Bird.
While the novel lacks the mystery of its predecessor, Gold's handling of the period is ingenious: the events of the Allied intervention serve as backdrop to an apparently fluffy story about the early days of Hollywood, featuring Mary Pickford, Adolph Zukor, and Rin Tin Tin.
But, as B'Tselem says, "official condemnations of this attack are empty rhetoric as long as politicians continue their policy of avoiding enforcement of the law on Israelis who harm Palestinians, and do not deal with the public climate and the incitement which serve as backdrop to these acts.
Shot around tiny Ottine, Texas, where the filmmaker grew up, the forest, fields and swampland that serve as backdrop for Will's journey look like the 1800s.
Photographs blown up to mural size serve as backdrops for some works in the new show.
The film's emotional homoerotic narrative unfolds on Peru's stunning coastline, far from the gritty urban landscapes that typically serve as backdrops for gay stories.
Heaven and hell both serve as backdrops in "I'll Be Damned," the elongated sketch of a musical now at the Vineyard Theater.
Modern versions of monumental worker murals serve as backdrops for six-foot wooden models of staplers, soda fountains and 1920's telephones.
In most cases the locations could still serve as backdrops for Swallows and Amazon adventures – they still look like they did in the illustrations.
New Yorkers may be impressed by the scenes in which Washington Square Park, the East River bridges and the Grand Central Terminal concourse serve as backdrops — it really does feel just the tiniest bit as if you were there.
